Targeting speculators

“Vacancy tax must be introduced to combat concrete gold”

The demand for a vacancy tax is gaining momentum. Tyrol, Salzburg and Styria have already passed a levy and Carinthia intends to follow suit. There are 635,000 vacant apartments in Austria. Speculators are not even offering many of them on the housing market.

Times are getting tougher and almost all federal states now want a vacancy tax. This is because there are empty apartments everywhere that are not available on the housing market. A vacancy levy is a state law in which the federal government must play its part: Under constitutional law, local authorities are only allowed to levy small sums each year. Now the government has announced a change, the levies are to increase. A higher tax rate, around 100 euros per square meter per year, could generate 1.8 billion euros in vacancy taxes for the federal states. The SP also wants to agree. 

According to Statistics Austria, there are 635,000 vacant apartments in Austria, which could accommodate 1.3 million people. Many of these are hoarded by speculators and not offered on the housing market. Only the value should increase. However, the demand for new apartments is high and hardly any new construction is currently taking place due to the high costs. But at least those vacant properties that already exist could be rented out or sold more quickly if the owners are given a higher tax.

In Carinthia, there is a small tax on second homes, which generates 6.9 million euros for the municipalities. That is far too little, everyone wants a higher vacancy tax. In Klagenfurt, 12,000 of the 60,000 apartments are vacant. In Carinthia there are said to be 53,000 apartments. Half of these are not on the market. Speculators only want to increase the value. "Concrete gold must be combated," says the SP. A vacancy tax should be introduced. With exceptions such as apartments for children. But there must not be too many. Otherwise speculators will look for loopholes again.